WILDERNESSES

"God takes us into the wilderness not to abandon us--but to be alone with us? Wildernesses are not where God takes us to hurt us--but where He speaks to our hearts."


Ann Voskamp
The Broken Way  p. 219
Zondervan  2016


This makes me want to read Exodus to see if I agree.

 I suspect Ann's perception of a wilderness are closer to the truth than mine. And I'm . . . relieved.

Lonnie

LORD, IS IT I?

"When our Lord said, 'One of you will betray me," thank God those disciples had enough spirituality that nobody said, 'Lord is it he?' Everyone of the disciples said, 'Lord, is it I?' If they would not have so responded there could not have been a Pentecost. But because they were humble enough to point the finger in their own direction the Holy Spirit fell upon them."



A. W. TOZER
Rut, Rot, Or Revival   p. 10
Christian Publications   1992

God,
Give us the courage to ask, "Is it I?"

And So I Do,
Lonnie

ROCKING CHAIR

"The elderly woman in the nursing home didn't speak to anyone or request anything. It seemed she merely existed, rocking in her creaky old chair. She didn't have visitors, so one young nurse would often go into her room on breaks. Without asking the woman questions to try to get her to talk, she simply pulled up another chair and rocked with her. After several months, the elderly woman said to her, 'Thank you for rocking with me.' She was grateful for the companionship."

Anne Cetas
Our Daily Bread  Vol 62  #4
July 27, 2017

This is powerful on so many levels.

God, speak what You will to my life. Help me obey--in love,
Lonnie

"THAT" PERSON

"Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives," says Henri Nouwen.


As quoted by Philip Yancey in
Our Daily Bread  Vol. 62  #4  (July 24, 2017)

Don't you love it when someone SO understands?

Smiling,
Lonnie

BELIEVE RIGHT----LIVE WRONG

"Our trouble is not that we refuse to believe right doctrine, but we refuse to practice it. We have the peculiar contadiction of believing the right thing and living the wrong way, a strange anomaly within the church everywhere."


A. W. Tozer
Culture   p.37
Moody  2016



Tozer would be my hero if he wasn't so hard on me.


Lonnie

PLANNED ANNOYANCE

Remembering, today, an incident from the Christian bookstore where I worked. 

A man, accompanied by his preschool daughter, asked question after question until he became an annoyance. We (like good Christians?), finally started to avoid him . . . to look busy everytime we suspected he had another no-brainer question.

THAT IS, UNTIL . . . 

A mall-shopper informed us that this man had made several trips from our store to his car, where he was filling his trunk with our merchandise.

Call this "planned annoyance." 

When our attentions are consistently being drawn from one direction to another, might something be going on that's meant to be hidden?

Lesson Learned,
Lonnie

WHO KNOW US BEST

"If the people who know us best encourage us the least, we have few chances to develop confidence."




Beth Moore
Portraits Of Devotion  p.27
Broadman and Holman  2014


Mom used to tell me, "the cobbler's children have no shoes."  

Hmmm . . .

Am I Missing Someone Close To Me?
Lonnie

"INSIDE JOB"

In discussing those things that steal our joy, Warren Wiersbe writes,

"Worry is an 'inside job.' You can buy sleep at the drug store, but you cannot purchase rest."


Be Joyful  p.17/ Nook
David C. Cook   1974

How true that is! Difference between sleep and rest? Sleep gets us through the day. Rest is satisfying and restorative.

Resting More. Worrying Less,
Lonnie

AN EASIER WAY?

Secrets "to" something often suggest an easier way.

Not so in the book I just finished:  SPIRITUAL SECRETS OF FAMOUS CHRISTIANS
by Anna Talbot McPherson  1964

I didn't find bold headings indicating what those secrets were, but I discovered them just the same: suffering and perseverance.

Oh yes, one more secret: Love

(Love for the Savior who gave His blood for them, and for those who don't "yet" know Him.)

Addicted To The Easier Way, But Feeling Willingness Knocking On My Heart,
Lonnie

BEN FRANKLIN'S EPITAPH

Composed for himself at age 22

"The Body of
B. Franklin
Printer;
Like the Cover of an old Book, 
Its Contents torn out,
And  stript of its Lettering and Gilding, 
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost: 
For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,
Corrected and Amended 
By the Author."


http://www.librarycompany.org/bfwriter/images/large/1.10.jpg
As Quoted In: The Printer And The Preacher
By Randy Peterson
Nelson Books 2015

Love This!
Lonnie

HOPELESSNESS?

"Hopelessness is a liar."

"A convincing one.

"We offer it no welcome, no couch to rest on . . . we do not cater to it in any way."




Beth Moore
Audacious   p.37
Broadman and Holman



To Self . . . Enough said!
Lonnie

YOU FIRST

(a therapist to the mom of an orphan)

"He needs you to go first . . . to show him he's worthy of love before he'll be able to act like it."



Kristen Holmberg
The Upper Room  Vol 62  #4  
July 6, 2017


Loving people through the tough stuff is hard . . . but convincing.

Loved Unconditionally,
Lonnie

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

" You are where you are for such a time as this--not to make an impression, but to make a difference. We aren't here to one-up one another, but to help one another up."





Ann Voscamp
The Broken Way   p. 91
Zondervan   2016


The hazzard of reading many books at once is having to read where I've been to know where I'm going. But, ahhh, today reading all my underlinings is a treat.

Lonnie

BACON

"And I'm telling you, even the end of the world would seem less a crisis when you've got a good plate of bacon in front of you."

Father of Ann Voskamp
The Broken Way   p. 113
Zondervan  2016

Drooling,
Lonnie

DO YOU?

"Not Do you believe Me? Not Do you admire Me? Not Do you appreciate Me? Not Do you worship Me? Not Do you respect Me? All those questions have profound placement in the life of faith but they are not synonymous with the one Jesus deliberately, repeatedly asked Peter.

Do you love me?"






Beth Moore
Audacious   p. 24
Broadman and Holman



I'm convinced that we can recognize God's conviction by the love it's wrapped in.

This book, so far, is just that.

Wrapped in His Love,
Lonnie